Victor Schœlcher (; 22 July 1804 – 25 December 1893) was a French abolitionist, writer, politician and journalist, best known for his leading role in the abolition of slavery in France in 1848, during the Second Republic.
Early life
Schœlcher was born in Paris on 22 July 1804. His father, Marc Schœlcher (1766–1832), from Fessenheim in Alsace, was the owner of a porcelain factory. His mother, Victoire Jacob (1767–1839), from Meaux in Seine-et-Marne, was a laundry maid in Paris at the time of their marriage. He was baptized in Saint-Laurent Church on 9 September 1804.
He enrolled in the Lycée Louis-le-Grand in 1818, but left one year later and began working at the family's porcelain factory in the rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis. In his teenage years Schœlcher became an opponent of the Bourbon monarchy while frequenting the literary and political salons of Paris. which was at the time very strongly politicized, not to say openly revolutionary. He later moved to another Parisian lodge, La Clémente Amitié.
Abolitionism
In 1828, Schœlcher was sent by his father on an eighteen months-long trip in America, as a representative of the family's porcelain enterprise. While in the continent he visited Mexico, Cuba, Schœlcher inherited the family business on his father's death in 1832, but sold it on in order to dedicate himself to his abolitionism. In the following years he traveled through Europe, and in 1840—Schœlcher became an advocate for the immediate emancipation of slaves, no longer supporting a gradual process. He published these ideas in Des colonies françaises: Abolition immédiate de l'esclavage ("Of the French colonies: Immediate abolition of slavery") in 1842,
thumb|upright|left|Schœlcher in 1848, by [[Louis Stanislas Marin-Lavigne]]
In February 1848, a revolution in France overthrew the July Monarchy. Schœlcher arrived from Senegal on 3 March, and quickly went to meet with François Arago, the Minister of the Navy and Colonies of the provisional government of the new Republic. Arago appointed him under-secretary of state for the colonies the next day, as well as president of a new commission charged with drafting the immediate abolition of slavery,
Schœlcher had convinced Arago not to wait until the election of the constituent National Assembly, which would be deeply occupied with organizing the new republican institutions, to establish the abolitionist commission, arguing that any postponing of the emancipation could lead to revolt and bloodshed in the colonies.
Schœlcher was then exiled by the new regime.
Refusing to take advantage of the amnesty of 1859,
Homages
thumb|[[Statue of Victor Schœlcher|Statue of Schœlcher with a freed slave celebrating the 1848 abolition of slavery, in Cayenne. Sculpted by Louis-Ernest Barrias, it was listed as a monument historique in 1999 ]]
- In homage to his fight against slavery, the commune of Case-Navire (Martinique) took the name of Schœlcher in 1888.
- The commune of Fessenheim turned his family's house into the Victor Schœlcher museum.
- The Place Victor Schœlcher in Aix-en-Provence is named after him.
- A street created at the south-eastern corner of the Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris was named Rue Schœlcher in 1894 and Rue Victor Schœlcher in 2000.
- Two ships of the French Navy have been named Victor Schœlcher – an auxiliary cruiser during World War II, and a Commandant Rivière-class frigate in service from 1962 to 1988.
- On 20 May 2020, two statues of Schœlcher were destroyed in Martinique. French President Emmanuel Macron criticized the acts. Another statue was destroyed in March 2021; their destruction was supported by activists from the separatist "National Front for the Liberation of Martinique", and represents part of wider protests against "colonial memory".
- He was honored by the department of Réunion on a commemorative note of five thousand francs first issued in 1946.